The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1887-06-08
ODD USES OF PAPER.
Paper Boats, Paper Car Wheels
and Paper Clothes.

[ tiAL ktAN1hAf tfi'AAAtf - lfAtfNy VI ~ " @
ters, Of Lansingburg, near Troy. New
York. These boats are made Of an ordi-
nary Manila paper Of good quality, usu-
ally in five thicknesses, in al only one
sixteenth OF an inch thick, except in
parts where there is the reinforcement Of
one or two extra strips The process Of
making them is simple. A model of soft
pine is made the full size Of the boat, the
bow end being Of two pieces which can
be detached. The paper is delivered in
long rolls the model is turned upside
down on long frame one narrow strip
of paper and then a second are frst laid
on where the keel would be, and then
one, two, three, four, FIVE sheets are sue
cessiyely laid along and moulded close to
the model, each as it is put on being coat
cd with shellac and with glue to attach
the next sheet closely to it. Thus done
up in paper, the models are taken TO a
drying-room, where heat Of about l50o
F., continued for five days, consolidates
the glued paper into solid mass. The
movable pieces Of wood at the bow are
nnscrewed and taken out, and with this
place for start, it is easy to peal the
boat off the model, as peach skin comes
Off fresh peach. 4 keel is now fastened
inside the boat, several extra layers Of
shellac are put on outside and inside,
strip Of wood is fastened in for gunwaIe,
and the shell is presently ready for its
fittings, seats and out-riggers They are
mostly racing shells, from single-scull up
10 eight-oar, but one boat has been built
as large a. 42 feet long by ( feet I inches
beam, TO hold forty-two persons, this, Of
course, being stayed by wooden ribs; and
a steam launch 70 feet long, worked by
. one-horse-power oil engine, boat and
engine together weighing but 40 pounds,
was last fall successfully run at a speed
Of about ten miles per hour on the upper
Hudson The cost is something above
that Of wood. The single-scull, 2l4 feet
long by l0l inches beam, costs from S65
to 500 the eight-oared shell, about so
feet long, by p inches wide, costs s400.
1t is an interesting fact that the racing
shells Of Harvard, Yale. and Columbia,
in 1856 were all from the same model
from tlis shop, so that the contest was
entirely one of skill on even terms.
Not only is travelling by water indebt-
ed TO paper, but travelling by land A
paper car wheel seems even more a con-
tradiction of terms than paper boat, yet
It is now generally acknowledged to be
better, safer, and longer-lived than one
altogether Of metal Il was the inven-
ton of Richard y Allen, locomotive
engineer, afterward master mechanic of
the Cleveland and Toleio Railroad, who
took for his aim in life the production of
a better car wheel than those in use. His
first set of paper wheels were made at
Braneon, Vermont, in 1860, and after
much seoffing he was graciously permit
ted the use Of a wood-car on the Central
Vermont road under which they were
tested for six months The Pullman Pal
ace CIR Company in 1871 gave the first
order for a hundred wheels ten years af-
ter. the Allen Paper Car-wheel Company,
with great shops at Hudson, New York,
and Pullman, Illinois, produced and sold
over thirteen thousand in single year.
One Of the set first experimental with
undera $ sleeper is shown at Hudson.
with a record Of 100000 miles travel.
1t is the body Of tile wheel only which
is of paper. The material is ealendered
rye-straw . board, or thick paper madeat
the Allen Company's Mills, at Morris. II
linois. This Is seat to the works in cir
cular sheets of twenty-five to forty inches
diameter Two men, standing by pile
of these, rapidly brush over each sheet
an even coating Of -four paste, until a
dozen are pasted into layer. \ third
man transfers these layers to a hydraulic
press, where a pressure Of five hundred
tons or more is applied to a file Of them,
the layers being kept distinct by the alb
sence Of paste between the outer sheets.
After s0lidifying under this pressure for
two hours, the twelse-sheet Iayers are
kept for week in a drying-room heated
to 1902 +. several Of these layers are in
turn pasted together, pressed, and dried
for a second week, and still again these
disks are pasted, pressed, and given a
third drying for whole month. The re- i
suit IS a circular block. containing from
l20 to 16O sheets of tine original paper,
compressed TO . or inches thickness,
and Of solidity, density. and weight
suggesting metal rather than fibre.
The paper wheel is made up of this
disk of compressed paper, surrounded by
a steel tire, and fitted with cast-iron
hub, which is bored for the axle; wrought
iron plates protect the paper disk on Ell
ther side, and all are bolted together by
two circles Of bolts. one set passing
through flange of the tire, the other
through ilange of the hub, and both
through the paper centre and its protect
ing plates,
The real service of the paper is in in
a non-vibrating substance be-
tween the axle and the tire, 50 that the |
vibrations which in some unknown way
the atoms of metal SO that it /
brittles sand breaks after long wear are pre-
vented. Nature always has way of wear (
ing things out, whether it be man, lest |
he lag superfluous on the stage, or :" the I
everlasting hills themselves, but in the Z
case of compressed paper art seems To {
have got ahead of nature, for it seems not /
10 wear out at ALL The steel tires ofthese
wheels do wear down. and are then re-
turned in lathe to smaller diameter /
but when they are gone and taken off,
the paper block appears again as good as
new, and ready for a new tire. The pa
per wheel has the one disadvantage of
greater cost, but its longerlife and greater
safety are in its favor.
Straw lumber so called is similar
application of paper for building purpos-
IS it is used, not for posts or beams, but
N the place of lathe and plaster, for
etc. An ordinary straw
board paper is made on the cylinder
refuse bedding of stables
being very largely utilized as the materi-
.l-and is run through vat of resin and